Class of 2027

Clara's Kindergarten Orientation Night.

Gulp!

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Cousin Will challenged Paul to the summer's fundraising craze, the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise money for ALS research. The basic premise: someone challenged you (Will), you have 24 hours to either donate $100 or dump a bucket of ice on your head. You then get to challenge someone else. This things raised obscene amounts of money.

Hattie was excited by the idea, and offered to do it with her Daddy. 

But she chickened out when it came time to do the deed. "No, I'm scared," said Hattie. 

To her credit, she joined her sister in doing it that night in the bathtub.

Clara's First Day of Kindergarten (Sort Of)

There's much excitement leading up to the first day of kindergarten. In Wake County we practice "staggered entry," meaning all the kindergarteners get a full-day dry run before official school begins and then they get a full week off. It gives the teachers a chance to evaluate the kids, see how they interact and behave. Then they get together and arm wrestle over the ones they want in their class.

We treated it like the official first day, and Clara was raring to go. We read the prep books the night before...

We suited up for our 5-block walk (on a beautiful morning)...

And we left Clara in the clutches of Douglas Elementary for the day, as mama and daddy worked hard to hold back tears. 

Kate and Paul showed up for dismissal when the day was done, anxious (to be sure) to hear about Clara's experience. She was lined up at the front of the queue just inside the door while we all waited outside. She spotted us through the window and waved to us cheerily. A good sign.

We walked back home...

...and were greeted by Hattie and Ms. Carole back at the house.

Where they had turned the driveway into a big "Welcome Home" card for Clara.

We decided to eat out that night. To celebrate Clara's big day, she got to pick the restaurant. We walked up to Chuy's in North Hills.

And that was Clara's first (sort of) day of Kindergarten.

Progress: Hattie's Move to the Big Girl Bed and Self-Potty Trains

One night, three weeks ago, we were going through our regular night time routine. Kate and Paul tend to swap off duties: Mama helps Clara one night while Daddy's with Hattie and then vice-versa the next. This night Kate had Hattie, which tends to be the easier of tasks. 

While Clara has long required plenty of stories and an intricately devised series of five-minute-games before she can fall asleep, Hattie has come to accept a straightforward 15 to 20 minute routine. Read her three stories, turn off the light, carry her to the windows to look outside, sing a quick song, lay her in the crib, say goodnight, and head on out. Easy peasy. 

Not so much this night. While in Clara's room, Paul kept noticing Kate go back to Hattie's. For the first time, our two-and-a-half year old decided to put her acrobatic skills to work and climb out of the crib. Kate would put her back, and Hattie would immediately climb back out.

Now, we knew this moment was coming. Older sister kicked the crib habit almost a year younger, and Hattie's climbing skills have long made her capable. But she just hasn't done it. This has been a wonderful blessing for us all!

But nothing lasts forever, and Hattie chose tonight to reject the crib. Kate stayed with her until she fell asleep that night, but the game was changed. There's nothing less useful than a crib that the child can escape, so the next morning (after Hattie let herself out and came downstairs) we swallowed hard and made the conversion to the big girl bed.

New ball game, folks. New ball game.

We were forced back to square one for night time routine. Like her older sister before her, Hattie took great glee in the ease with which she could escape the bed and roam the halls. All that new found freedom! We tried gentle chiding. We tried persuasion. In desperation, we tried a couple nights of slumber parties with Clara camped out on Hattie's floor. (Nobody slept well those nights!) We suggested a reward system. But then we knew what had to be...we had to break out the "safety" locks. If her bed no longer confined her at night, we would turn the door into a restraining system.

So we've been experimenting with new routines. For some reason, young Hattie has decided that this is the time to train herself to stop using her pull-up for its intended nighttime purpose. Since moving to the big girl bed, she has simultaneously potty-trained herself. Of course, that means waking up through the night when the slightest urge hits. 

This is, of course, a wonderful thing. A great milestone in Hattie's development. But like so many things, we feel the pain of progress now and only appreciate the accomplishment later, looking through the rearview mirror, once everyone has adapted to the change.

Everyone is adapting. It's been three weeks of fitful sleep, but Hattie is figuring out that she shouldn't (well, can't, thanks to the locks) pop into Clara's bedroom throughout the night. We're figuring out not to pump her full of water before bedtime. She's learned to fall asleep on her own again (after one song...well, maybe two...or) after we leave the room. And we've learned to expect that Hattie will give us at least one wake-up in the night to relieve her little bladder.

The only constant is change, and so we accept the grogginess that comes with progress and celebrate little Hattie's march forward.

Hattie's Last Night in the Crib - Aug 5, 2014

Pappaw Babysitting Leads to Pappaw Slumber Party

Pappaw came through Raleigh on his way to the beach. We didn't hesitate to sign him up for babysitting duties, his first time solely responsible for the girls at night...including putting them to bed.

Night time routine is no easy thing. But Pappaw passed with flying colors. Kate and Paul returned home from a dinner out with friends, and this is what we found:

The girls informed us the next day that Pappaw is an excellent babysitter, earning two thumbs up.

Of course now, at each visit, they will expect a Pappaw slumber party.